The public needs to know how Saskatchewan RCMP treated Colten Boushie’s family on the night the 22-year-old was fatally shot, a friend of the family says.

“If the RCMP can treat these indigenous people in such a racist way, it gives others permission to do the same,” said Eleanore Sunchild, a criminal lawyer in North Battleford who has been personally supporting the family but does not legally represent them.

After a few minutes an officer tried to force a tearful Baptiste to her feet, the newspaper reported.

“He grabbed my wrist right here and he said ‘Ma’am, get yourself together.’ And I told him, ‘No,’ ” Baptiste told the Globe. As Baptiste struggled to her feet, an officer asked her if she was drunk. Brothers William and Jace said the officers also asked them if they had been drinking, according to the Globe. William and Jace claim that none of them had been drinking.

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Dan Climenhaga said the reports are “concerning” and that RCMP can’t provide further comment as the matter is before the courts. Full details will be released through that process, he said.

Sunchild said she was aware of the family’s concerns before reading The Globe and Mail’s story. The case brings to light the disparity in how the justice system has treated native and non-native people since colonization, she said.

“If it were a non-native family whose son was killed, do you think they would have treated them the same way? Searching their house, smelling their breath, telling a distraught mother to pull herself together? No, I think they would be treated with respect and dignity. But that was not the case here.”

Gerald Stanley, the 54-year-old man charged with second-degree murder in the Aug. 9 shooting Boushie on his rural property near Biggar, was released from custody on Aug. 19 after posting a $10,000 cash bail and placed on several restrictions.

The Globe and Mail, citing a court document prepared by police known as an ITO — information to obtain a warrant — also reported that police allege Boushie and four others had pulled onto the Stanley property after attempting at a nearby farm “to steal vehicles and items.” A confrontation ensued and Boushie was fatally shot moments later while still in the car. He was declared dead at the scene.

According to Boushie’s uncle, Alvin Baptiste, Boushie and four friends had been swimming and drinking nearby on Aug. 9 and pulled onto Stanley’s property after they experienced car trouble on their way home to the Red Pheasant First Nation.

The police ITO — which is usually sealed to prevent reporting on the document’s contents prior to a trial — was obtained by The Globe and Mail. An ITO includes early information collected by investigators and is used in an attempt to obtain a warrant. None of the information in the document has been proven in a court of law.

According to the ITO, Colten Boushie, his girlfriend Kiora Wuttunee, friend Eric Meechance and his girlfriend, Belinda Jackson, along with friend Cassidy Whitstone were driving a Ford Escape. Around 5:30 p.m., they pulled into the Stanley farm after visiting a neighbouring farm, where they “attempted to steal vehicles and items,” the Globe reported, citing allegations in the ITO.

According to Wuttunee, Colten was sitting in the car’s back seat next to her as she slept. When Wuttunee woke up, she saw Meechance and Whitstone get out and run. Boushie got into the front seat and tried to drive, but “it wouldn’t go anywhere,” the Globe reported. A police officer who was at the scene said the car had only a rim, no tire, on the front driver’s side.

According to the police allegations, son Sheldon Stanley saw one of the occupants — not believed to be Boushie — get out of the vehicle and then heard the Stanleys’ ATV start up. When Sheldon and Gerald Stanley started to yell, the man got back into the Escape, and the vehicle swerved in Sheldon’s direction. Sheldon, the Globe reported, is alleged to have smashed the windshield of the Escape with a hammer as it was reversing, while his father kicked in a tail light. The car then collided with a parked car belonging to the Stanleys, the Globe reported, citing the ITO.

Sheldon Stanley told police he saw two men get out of the Escape and run off, while two women along with Colten Boushie stayed behind. Sheldon Stanley said he went to the house to get truck keys. He told police that while inside he heard two gunshots, and then a third as he stepped back outside, the ITO states.

According to the allegations in the ITO, he saw his father, Gerald Stanley, standing at the driver’s side window of the Ford Escape with a gun in his hand. His father looked sick, Sheldon said. It is alleged that he said his father told him he was trying to scare the kids and the gun “just went off.”

Gerald Stanley told police that after kicking in the tail light, he went to a nearby shed where he kept what police believe was a Russian-designed Tokarev TT33 semi-automatic handgun (one of two handguns registered in his name), and loaded it. He said he fired twice in the air to scare the group. Two people left the car and ran away, he said, according to the Globe. Stanley then agreed with the officer interviewing him that he “went up to the driver’s side window and shot the male driver once in the head and killed him,” according to allegations set out in the ITO.

Leesa Stanley told police that she did not see the shooting. When she walked over to see what was happening she heard her husband yell “Oh my God.” She told her son to call 911, and went over to Wuttunee and Whitstone. One woman punched and knocked down Leesa Stanley but stepped back when Sheldon Stanley shouted at her to stop, according to the Globe.

Sheldon and Leesa Stanley said they saw the barrel of a .22 calibre bolt-action rifle, with the stock and trigger missing, the Globe reported. An officer said there appeared to be a live round in the chamber. There were no spent casings in the area. Residents on a neighbouring farm told police it appeared the stock broke when someone tried to force their way into a locked truck, according to the Globe report.

Scott Spencer, the Saskatoon-based lawyer representing Stanley, issued a statement to the Globe addressing the details contained in the ITO.

“The ITO in this matter reflects the RCMP’s earliest theory of the case and is of course not admissible evidence. The Stanley family will continue to respect the judicial process and will not comment until the legal process is complete,” Spencer said in the statement, adding that he would have preferred the RCMP sealed the ITO to prevent the reporting of its contents.

Those supporting Boushie say unequivocally his shooting was racially motivated and that if the car was filled with Caucasian occupants, there would have been no such incident. Those completely behind Stanley say Boushie and the four others were trespassers and up to no good, and that Stanley was defending himself on his relatively remote farmyard.

Boushie’s shooting death and the subsequent arrest of Stanley unleashed a torrent of hatred and racism online that previously was mostly uttered only in private conversations. It got so bad in the immediate aftermath that Premier Brad Wall made a public plea urging people to stop.

Sunchild said she was aware of the family’s concerns before reading The Globe and Mail’s story. The case brings to light the disparity in how the justice system has treated native and non-native people since colonization, she said.

Sabrina Peyachew, a councillor with Red Pheasant Cree Nation and Colten’s aunt, said she can’t reconcile the boy she knew with the situation he appears to have found himself in moments before his death.

He was a happy-go-lucky and hard working person who didn’t look for trouble, she said. It could have been a case of him hanging around with the wrong people at the wrong time, she said.

“I can’t see him being that kind of a person.”

She was also surprised by how police allegedly “mistreated” the family. She questioned why they would have to search the home, as if the family had done something wrong.

“I would have expected them to actually be more comforting,” she said.

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